Here's an idea for a minifig unit type: The Adventurer. Like all good adventurers, he gets XP for everything he kills. Inspired by some of the BrikwaRPG stuff, why not just incorporate a character who levels up quickly as the battle goes on?

The idea is simple: He starts with 1d6 armor and skill. For each kill, he gets one level, which is directly added to his armor. His skill also increases to 1d6+1 at level 2, 1d6+2 at level 3, and moving up to 1d8 at 4th level. Since 1d8 is actually significantly less good than 1d6+2, the adventurer may also gain any other minifig ability, like piloting, stealth, compensating, or whatever else shows up on other stat cards in your house-ruled versions.

It's worth noting that the adventurer is NOT a hero, and therefore shouldn't get to use heroic feats. I haven't play-tested this, but I like the idea - what do you guys think? Should there be a skillcap? Should they earn heroic feats for getting to 1d10 skill? Is 1d6+7 waaaaay too much armor?

I was just thinking about something like this. I like it, but personally I think the kill amount for each level should be a little higher. The faster they their skill increases, the easier it will be for them to get the kills to progress to the next level. Instead of just one kill, why not make add a certain number of necessary kills to progress?

Ben-Jammin wrote:I was just thinking about something like this. I like it, but personally I think the kill amount for each level should be a little higher. The faster they their skill increases, the easier it will be for them to get the kills to progress to the next level. Instead of just one kill, why not make add a certain number of necessary kills to progress?

Yeah, experience point requirements usually increase in higher levels for most RPGs anyways, so lets say an Adventure needs to make their current level in kills before leveling up.That way, you could have an entire Adventuring party as a squad AND have an excuse for them to start killing each other when available targets get low.

Ben-Jammin wrote:I was just thinking about something like this. I like it, but personally I think the kill amount for each level should be a little higher. The faster they their skill increases, the easier it will be for them to get the kills to progress to the next level. Instead of just one kill, why not make add a certain number of necessary kills to progress?

Yeah, experience point requirements usually increase in higher levels for most RPGs anyways, so lets say an Adventure needs to make their current level in kills before leveling up.That way, you could have an entire Adventuring party as a squad AND have an excuse for them to start killing each other when available targets get low.

How about having to kill as many people as their sides of dice plus modifiers so for instance a minifig with 1d6+1 skill would have to kill 7 people to level up. Obviously this means a minifig can't really level up much in a single game, but I'm assuming the character will be reused alot over many games.

Better idea: he gains experience based on the base cost of whatever he takes down. For each level he has to gain 10(Current Level) experience points to level up. It's a little slower, but I think it's a little more balanced as well, since he's not a hero.

Colette wrote:Of course, this assuming the adventurer is participating in an RPG-style game.

Definite wrong assumption! This is for regular brikwars, like if King Leon the Generic got an adventurer to join his warband for a battle, or if the space-king hired a mercenary or something. If you want a fig to survive multiple battles and keep track of his specific attributes and other crap, play BrikwaRPG. This idea just fills the niche of "guy that gets better as he kills stuff."

Blowing up vehicles and structures should never grant XP - only defeating things with minds would. I like 1 level for every kill just because your average game of brikwars is less than 10 turns long. if someone has the chance to level up, they'd better be doing it quickly. I do like the must-earn-your-level in kills though, maybe size-points for larger MOC dragons and whatnot could count as 1 XP each. That makes a size 3 dragon worth 3. Oh, and friendly fire should definitely still grant XP.

I think an adventurer leveling all the way up in a single game is the best mechanic to aim for. It makes your opponent put much more emphasis on having to kill the him while he's weak before he has a chance to become all-powerful.

As for dice armors, I'm actually against converting each +4 into a d6, as unexpected as that sounds. I realized that 1d6+7 is honestly not that much functionally different than 1d6 (armored), so i'm letting it stay.

Also, why shouldn't smashed constructs grant XP? I'd imagine you'd learn far more destroying a mech than crushing a dimmy. I don't know if you mean it just to discourage adventurers from being over glorified destruction teams, but in traditional RPGs, you gain Exp. for everything from slaying dragons to emptying the garbage. I think it would be interesting to introduce quests of various levels, to gain XP quicker. Something like

level 1 quest- break a wndow, kill any figure, ETC.level 2 quest- Kill a specefic figure, crash a car, defeat any couple minifigs, ETC.level 3 quest- kill specialist, save a princess, ETC.And so on, and the higher a difficulty a quest you complete, you gain that much XP.

Just my overlong musing.

"there are no bystanders in the battle for survival. anyone who will not fight by your side is an enemy you must crush"

Buildings and tanks don't grant XP because then adventurers would just go around attacking dumpsters and manhole covers just to get XP, which is lame. However, all of the crew inside of a tank or building definitely grant XP.

On Colette's BrikwaRPG thread Mike mentioned a "rolling-under" system for leveling up that would be both easier to keep track of and lower effort, and he also brought up the fact that 1d6+2 almost guarantees that your pistol and rifle shots will hit. Personally I don't see that as too much of a problem since if a player wanted to keep his skill "perfect" he'd have to pass up on making any kills, but I'd like to hear what you think.

I also like the idea behind quests and keeping adventurers focused on a specific, separate task - sort of like a heroic cliche, but for the adventurer.

IVhorseman wrote:Buildings and tanks don't grant XP because then adventurers would just go around attacking dumpsters and manhole covers just to get XP, which is lame. However, all of the crew inside of a tank or building definitely grant XP.

IVhorseman wrote:Buildings and tanks don't grant XP because then adventurers would just go around attacking dumpsters and manhole covers just to get XP, which is lame. However, all of the crew inside of a tank or building definitely grant XP.

Well, maybe not buildings, but why not vehicles at least?

So what if somebody goes around and attacks dumpsters and manhole covers? It's hilarious, and moreover if the player is generally acting like an anorak then the others can give him a good beating and eject him from the game. If a player is taking the game so seriously that he actually is just spending his time attacking manholes and dumpsters to safely gain xp, well he shouldn't be playing brikwars in the first place. It's no different than from the normal game.

Because vehicles have crews - who if they also die, also grant XP. Robotic vehicles still grant XP.

Regular Brikwars allows anorakism only where it'd be too much of a pain in the ass to prevent it without also preventing awesome - like heroic feats. Specifically allowing inanimate objects to grant XP straight-up promotes that. It's one of the reasons I'm warming up to the "roll under" technique for leveling up, since it requires a skill roll which buildings don't have.